Copyright 1904 by G. Barrie & Sons
A RECONCILIATION
We had drawn near to each other, having both left the table to go tothe window. I do not know how it happened, but I soon found Eugénie inmy arms; then we kissed, we walked away from the window, and——
NOVELS
BY
Paul de Kock
VOLUME XVIII
LE COCU
THE JEFFERSON PRESS
BOSTON NEW YORK
Copyrighted, 1903-1904, by G. B. & Sons.
CONTENTS
I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV.
PREFACE
BECAUSE OF THE TITLE
I have never written prefaces to my novels; I have always consideredwhat an author says in a preface, what he therein explains beforehand tothe reader, as utterly useless. The reader would be entitled to reply,as Alceste replies to Orontes: “We shall see.”
Nor have I ever supposed that the public read a novel in order to talkwith its author. It matters little to my readers, I presume, whether Iam young or old, short or tall, whether I write in the morning or atnight; what they want is a work that pleases them, in which there isenough of truth to enable them to identify themselves with thecharacters; and if the author constantly talks of himself and stationshimself between his heroes and his reader, it seems to me that hedestroys the illusion and injures his own work.
My reason for placing a preface at the head of this